In small or personal computer systems, facsimile transmission capability is increasingly being built into or attached to the computer system. These systems sometimes have the ability to transfer files from one computer system to another, through a software program running in the computer system, however, they can transfer a file only if the two computer systems have compatible facsimile receiving facilities which allow file transfers using the non-standard facility of the CCITT FAX protocol.
If the two facsimile systems cannot use the non-standard facility, they cannot transfer a file directly. A file can be transferred, however, by having the transmitting system convert the file to a FAX graphical image, and transmit the image to the receiving FAX where it is printed. Then the printed image is scanned, by a separate scanner, and converted to an ASCII file using optical character recognition (OCR). This method suffers from noise introduced by the printing process, and some optical character recognition systems cannot accurately scan a FAX printout. This method is more limited if the original file is printed before being FAXed, since the FAX transmitter introduces additional noise when the paper is scanned for transmission.
There is a need in the art then for a system to transfer an ASCII file using FAX systems. There is further need for such a system that uses facsimile transmission capability available on local and remote computer systems. A still further need is for such a system that transmits the data in a FAX image format and performs OCR conversion when receiving the file. The present invention meets these needs.